If you want more validation for choosing not to eat meat today, the Los Angeles City Council just gave it to you. On Friday, L.A. became the largest city in America to support the Meatless Monday campaign when the City Council voted unanimously, in a 12-0 vote, to support the resolution.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who co-introduced the motion with Councilman Ed

Reyes, said that “eating less meat can prevent and even reverse some of our nation's

most common illnesses,” and emphasized both the environmental impact of meat production and the links of excessive meat consumption to health problems such as heart disease and certain cancers.

“We've become disconnected in some ways from the simple truth that our health is directly affected by the foods we eat,'' Perry said.

Meatless Mondays began in 2003 as a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. Its goal is to help reduce meat consumption by 15% by encouraging people to cut out meat from their diets for just one day a week.

The initiative has been endorsed by 20 schools of public health — and by Mario Batali, who in May of 2010 instituted Meatless Mondays at all 14 of his restaurants, including Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza here in L.A.

See also:

Meatless Mondays: Be a Vegetarian, Just for One Day

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